Fellowship of the Greenholms
by The Fifth Walker
Summary: Elanor Gamgee and Fastred Greenholm have followed after Sam and Rosie, now having ten lads and lasses of their own. With the spirited personalities their offspring possess, it's no wonder life in the Westmarch is rarely boring.
1. May I Hold Him?

Disclaimer: Tolkien owns this world, and everything in it. Even these characters I created myself. I say he owns them because they never would have come about had he not created his Opus. Thank you, Professor.  
  
The Fellowship of the Greenholms  
  
Prolouge: "May I Hold Him?"  
  
Elanor sat wearily on a sofa, her newest child crying louder than ever.  
  
"What IS it, Frodo dear?" she asked finally. "You've been fed, cleaned, and burped. You have no reason to cry so!" she sighed and bounced him gently.  
  
"May I hold him?" a quiet voice asked from the doorway. Elanor frowned, unable to see the child that belonged to the voice. It was a certain voice that Elanor hadn't heard, to her knowledge, so it couldn't be one of HER children, could it?  
  
"What was that, dear?" she asked, hoping the child would come into the light of her candle.  
  
"If I'm careful, may I hold him?" Elanor's 5-year-old daughter Sadie shuffled over, nearly causing her mother to drop little Frodo from shock. Sadie, to Elanor's knowledge, had not ever spoken. The loud and rowdy group of boys she had grown up with had left Sadie with no desire to speak thus far, but now a sweet, practiced voice came from the hobbit-lass' mouth.  
  
"You're supposed to be asleep." Elanor finally commented. Sadie wrinkled her nose.  
  
"I can't. Sam is snoring." she said simply, as if she'd said it many times before. Elanor let a smile creep onto her face.  
  
"Well, then I suppose you may hold him." Elanor helped situate Sadie on the couch as Frodo started wailing with renewed strength. She set him in Sadie's arms.  
  
"Stop it, Fro." Sadie told the baby crossly. Elanor opened her mouth to explain that Frodo was just a baby and couldn't understand, but he suddenly hiccuped and gave a few put-out gurgling noises, then fell silent. She watched as the lad flailed his arms, as if to say "What took you so long?". Sadie smiled at him.  
  
"Sorry I didn't come sooner. Sam said you were too loud." Frodo babbled a little, and Sadie giggled at him. Elanor felt sorry to disrupt the sweet scene unfolding before her, but it was late, and time for a certain Hobbit-lass to be in bed.  
  
"Alright, sweetheart, it's bedtime." Elanor took Frodo back and put him in his crib. He gave a few half-hearted whimpers, but seemed ready to drop off into dreamland. Sadie pulled on Elanor's sleeve and then (when the taller of the two had bent down) hugged her tightly.  
  
"Goodnight, Mama. I love you."  
  
"I love you, too." Elanor answered. She watched with a smile as Sadie skipped back to the nursery she and Sam shared. Her oldest daughter was a gem indeed.  
  
((A note:  
  
These stories started from a little scribbling of conversation in one of my notebooks. (That particular conversation turned into "Confessions of a Tween-age Tomboy") It is growing and mutating into what I hope and pray will be a wonderful story. I know where it's going, I just need to get it there. And let me tell you about the Genre of this story: It's "Anne of Green Gables" meets "The Hobbit". Fun? Oh, yes. ^^  
  
A quick thank you before the story really begins, to Baylor for writing her wonderful stories and - in many cases - directly inspiring the events in this story. I'll try to keep track of everything major so I can thank her and/or ask her permission to use ideas. ^^  
  
Please review here or send me an e-mail at Pip@councilofelrond.net. Thanks so much!  
  
~Rose Pip, the Fifth Walker 


	2. Best Dress

Disclaimer - Tolkien owns all.  
  
A/N - The kids are called, affectionately, "The Brood". Ages at this point - Elfstan, 24; Tom, 19; Paddie, 16; Sam and Sadie (the Twins), 14; Esmie, 12; Ruby, 11; Frodo, 9; Vinca, 5; Poppy, 5 months. The "unholy alliance" between Paddie, Sam, Sadie, and Frodo is a club of sorts. They call themselves the "Four Walkers of Westmarch".  
  
Chapter One: Best Dress  
  
"Well if Bess is getting married, she has to have a wedding dress!" Sadie declared as she tried to put a white, lacy dress on the family pig. Sam was nearby, bouncing nervously from foot to foot.  
  
"But what if Ruby finds out we used HER dress?" he asked. "What if it gets ripped, or dirty?" Sadie rolled her eyes and finally succeeded in getting Bess' hoof through the sleeve.  
  
"It's a wedding, Samwise Greenholm. She'll stand here, get married to Oscar, and then we'll take it off for the honeymoon. Nothing's going to happen." Sam looked dubiously at the spunky girl in front of him, but said nothing. Paddie and Frodo came jogging up just then with Oscar (the other pig) in one of their father's old waistcoats.  
  
"Look!" Frodo squealed excitedly. "Look, Dee! I found clothes for Oscar!" Sadie grinned.  
  
"Good job, Fro." Sadie hugged her little brother. "Now, as the only woman here, other than Bess, I think I should preside over the wedding." Paddie snorted.  
  
"You're not a woman! Besides, I know more about this type of thing. I'll pre...pre-side." Paddie stumbled over the unfamiliar word.  
  
"Since when," Sam asked, "Have you known more than us?" Paddie flushed a bit.  
  
"Well, I'm older, so it makes sense that I'd know more--"  
  
"I don't know what you think you're--"  
  
"This is a lass' job, and--"  
  
"--respect your elders--"  
  
"--older doesn't mean smarter--"  
  
"--should be a girl, anyway--"  
  
"LOOK!" Frodo shouted over the argument, and the older three froze. "Bess and Oscar are taking their honeymoon!"  
  
"What?" They all looked in the direction Frodo was pointing. Sure enough, the pigs were trotting happily toward the mud in the lower field.  
  
"I told you..." Sam muttered, and Sadie's eyes went wide with fear.  
  
"Get those pigs!"  
  
"The Four Walkers to the rescue!" Frodo shouted gleefully, and took off running after the pigs, the other Walkers following behind (and soon passing him). Now, if they had calmly walked down to Bess and Oscar, chances are such that they could have probably gotten Ruby's best dress back without mishap. As it was, they ran down the hill at full speed, yelling at the tops of their lungs and waving their arms. Needless to say, the pigs took off running.  
  
The most important thing was to corner Bess, as Oscar's waistcoat had been gathering dust and moth-holes for many years in a store-room. At first, they tried to simply catch her, but numerous falls in the mud proved that course fruitless. Their second plan was to chase Bess towards someone, who would grab her. This seemed to work - in fact they had her headed straight for Sam - but she bowled the poor lad over without a thought and ripped a long strip of fabric off the skirt. The only remaining option was to corner her and have three of the children block her escape while the fourth de-clothed her.  
  
"Alright, here's the plan," Paddie gathered the younger children in a huddle. "Sam, you go on the left. Frodo, on the right. I'll go in from the middle and we'll corner her by the hedge over there." Paddie pointed to a dense hedge on the border of the property not too far away.  
  
"What about me?" Sadie asked nervously. Paddie looked deadly serious.  
  
"You have to take the dress off." he said, and Sadie nodded. "Let's go." The three boys headed purposefully towards the pig, Sadie trailing after them. Slowly...slowly...  
  
Then Bess suddenly found herself cornered by the strange loud creatures, and Sadie slipped up behind her. Before anyone (except Bess, who had quite a good handle on the situation) knew what was happening, something ripped loudly, Frodo was stuck in the hedge, Sadie was sprawled out on the ground, and Bess was running as fast as she could towards the Bolger's farm.  
  
"We're going to die." Sadie whispered, holding the mud-stained rag that had once been Ruby's best dress.  
  
"Let's wash it," Sam grabbed it and headed towards the house. "And then we'll put it back. She'll never prove it was us." Paddie and Sadie followed nervously. The small figure tangled in the hedge was, in the moment of fear, unintentionally forgotten.  
  
"Um, Sadie? Help?"  
  
~*~  
  
"Do you think she'll notice?" Paddie asked anxiously as the four siblings (Frodo duly unentangled from the hedge) sat at the edge of a pond, a large oak tree shading them.  
  
"Maybe she'll think the Bolger's dog got in the house." Sadie suggested.  
  
"Or that an Eagle thought it was a sheep and tried to eat it!" Frodo piped up. The other three looked at him, on ther verge of laughter, but a shrill scream coming from the hill dispelled any pleasent thoughts.  
  
"Eggshells." Sam cringed. "She noticed.  
  
~*~  
  
Thirty minutes and four sore seats later Paddie, Sam, Sadie, and Frodo were back under the oak again.  
  
"I think," Paddie grimaced, "That we need to make a pact against putting dresses on the pig."  
  
"Yes, PLEASE." Frodo sniffed. Sadie nodded, and Sam pulled a small book and a jar of ink out of a hollow in the tree.  
  
"Do you have a pen, Dee?" Sadie nodded and produced a rather disheveled goose-quill.  
  
"'We, the Four Walkers of Westmarch,'" Sadie paused and thought a moment before continuing. "'Do...do promise never to put clothes on the animals. Especially Ruby's clothes.' That should do it, Sam." she added as Sam scribbled in the little book. Solemnly each of the children took the quill and signed their name beneath the newly written pact.  
  
"Well," Sam sighed, "I think that's enough adventure for today." 


	3. Rainy Days

Disclaimer - Tolkien owns all. Including me.  
  
A/N - Vinca has a lisp, so her "s" sounds are written with a "th". ie - Sadie would be Thadie.  
  
Chapter Two: Rainy Days  
  
"I'm bored!" Frodo whined, staring out the window as the rain poured down in torrents.  
  
"Maybe we could go play with the Boffins?" Paddy suggested half-heartedly. Esmie shook her head. It was far too muddy and wet to even think about going outside.  
  
"If you try, I'll tell Elfthtan," Vinca lisped, sticking her tongue out at Paddie.  
  
"He wouldn't care." Sam sighed, sprawled out on the floor below the window-seat where Sadie was curled up with a book.  
  
"Well, I would tell Tom." Ruby declared. "He'd care." she sat primly on a chair, hemming an apron for herself. Esmie rolled her eyes and sat on the floor next to Vinca.  
  
"Let's play, Vinca." she said brightly. "Where are your marbles?"  
  
"I don't wanna play with marbleth." Vinca pouted. "I wanna go out-thide!"  
  
"Well we can't." Paddie snapped, joining Frodo in staring out the window. Sadie glanced longingly outside, then turned back to her book, a history of Gondor given to her by Master Meriadoc of Buckland. The door to the room opened, and Elfstan stuck his head in.  
  
"Tom!" he called into the hallway, "They're in here after all!" he stepped in and took a glance at the bored, apathetic faces in the room. Tom sighed as he came in, baby Poppy on his hip.   
  
"Well, since we've located you finally," Tom said, "Esmie, Ruby, Frodo, and Vinca need to go take their naps." A chorus of pleading and whining met the older lads' ears, and Elfstan motioned for silence.  
  
"Mum and Da are visiting the Goldworthies, and they told us you needed to rest NOW. So no fighting and get to bed."  
  
"Fine!" Ruby huffed off to the girls' room, Esmie and Vinca following in her wake. Frodo disappeared into the boys' room, and Tom left for Poppy's nursery, taking the yawning baby with him. Elfstan looke skeptically at his three remaining siblings.  
  
"You won't get yourselves into troubly now, will you?" he asked. The three teenagers shook their heads, and Sadie retreated once more into her book, enthralled by the story of a battle fought under the Steward Denethor I. Sam traced the patterns in the floorboards with his finger, and Paddie stared listlessly out into the downpour. Elfstan shook his head and left them to their thoughts.  
  
"It's too cramped in here!" Sadie exclaimed suddenly, slamming her book shut and causing both boys to jump.  
  
"Well we can't exactly do anything about it, Sadie-lass." Sam pointed out from the floor, gaining a glare from the said lass.  
  
"The only logical solution to our current dilemma is expansion of our assets." Paddie commented.  
  
"Impressive wording, Paddie." Sadie giggled. "Did you pick that up from Da's buisness talk?" Paddie mumbled a bit, and the twins hooted with laughter, knowing full well that Sadie was right.  
  
"But think about it," Paddie insisted, after the laughter waned. "We could dig out our own room from one of the cellars, and go there when we want to be alone!" Sadie's eyes lit up.  
  
"We could put my books there so Vinca couldn't get them!"  
  
"We could hide food down there!"  
  
"We could--"  
  
"Hold on!" Sam sat up and stopped the other two. "How are we going to make this room?"  
  
"We'll dig, obviously." Paddie shrugged. Sam thought about that for a moment.  
  
"Well," he said slowly, "I suppose as long as Mum and Da don't find out..."  
  
"Great!" Sadie put her book on a shelf. "Let's get started."  
  
~*~  
  
While the trio went to smuggle shovels into a little-used cellar to begin digging, the oldest boys were facing the problem of nap-time.   
  
"Now, Fro, you need to at least get in bed." Elfstan tried to coax his youngest brother under the covers.  
  
"Oh, no thank you. That's alright." Frodo answered, and continued to play with his toys. Elfstan sighed and heard a faint shout of "No, don't pull your sister's hair!" from across the hall, indicating Tom's struggle with the girls.  
  
"Please get in bed?"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Fine, I'll put you in myself!" Elfstan tried to get ahold of Frodo, who slipped around him and out his door just as a loud shriek came from the girls' room. Vinca came running out, Ruby behind her and quite obviously intent on causing the smaller lass bodily harm. Tom raced after them as Elfstan took off after Frodo, but diverted to get Poppy, who had started crying loudly.  
  
Elanor and Fastred walked in moments later and simply stared for a moment, taking in the chaos. Elfstan was trying (unsucessfully) to get Frodo out of the wardrobe in the hall, Tom was holding a wailing Poppy while trying to pry Ruby off of Vinca, and the faint sound could be heard of Sadie directing the expansion of the cellar a little ways down the hall.  
  
Vinca was the first to notice their parents' arrival.  
  
"Mama!" she wailed, "Ruby'th trying to pull all my hair out!" Everyone froze, noticing the very exasperated Hobbits in the door-way. Even Poppy quieted down, and the only sound was that of Sadie, Paddi, and Sam down in the cellar.  
  
"Naptime." Fastred said authoritatively. "Quietly. Now." Frodo, Vinca, and Ruby got up and scuttled into their rooms. Esmie stuck her head out and called "Thank you, Da!" before shutting the door.  
  
"Elfstan," Elanor sighed and patted the shoulder of a very harried-looking Tom, "Please go stop those thre from doing...whatever it is they're doing." Elfstan nodded and took off for the cellar.  
  
"Oy!" his voice carried back faintly. "What in the King's name are you DOING?" Tom kissed his mother on the cheek and took Poppy back towards the nursery. Elanor and Fastred shared a long look.  
  
"Well," Fastred smiled a little, "Just a normal day in the Warren."  
  
"Indeed." Elanor laughed, and went to the kitchen to prepare supper. 


End file.
